Men not welcome
Turkey tried a new approach to curbing crowd violence at soccer games – kick out all the men but let women and children attend for free. Under new rules approved by Turkey’s soccer association, only women and children younger than 12 will be admitted to games involving teams sanctioned for unruly fan behavior. On Tuesday, Fenerbahce handed out free tickets and more than 41,000 women and children attended the game against Manisaspor in Istanbul. “This really is a historic day,” Yasemin Mercil, a female member of Fenerbahce’s executive board, said before the game. “For the first time in the world, only women and children will watch a game. The women know all the chants. The same anthems, the same chants will be sung.” – AP